SitePathLocal intelIndiana › Floyd County
Indiana

Solar permitting — Floyd County, Indiana

FIPS 18043

No tracked activity yet — coverage expands weekly.

C
Floyd County, IN
Risk score 51/100 · Full scorecard →
Compliance: Very HighSolar ordinance on fileTrajectory: StableSaturation: Low

New Albany Louisville suburban fringe; Duke Energy territory. Permitting: Floyd County Area Plan Commission; 250-ft max / 40-ft min setbacks; very high compliance stringency. Track record: no prior utility-scale solar on record — gre…

Key driver: New Albany Louisville suburban fringe; Duke Energy territory. Most Stringent ordinance adopted in response to Jeffersonville-area opposition. New Albany Solar (15 MW) and Georgetown Solar (20 MW) approved on non-suburban parcels before 2022 ordinance tightening. Very limited remaining viable land; suburban character now dominates the county.

Permitting process

Local permitting pathway

Floyd County Area Plan Commission (APC): CUP or Improvement Location Permit (ILP) in Agricultural district.

Setbacks & buffers

IC 8-1-42-10 default standards, measured as a straight line from the nearest outer edge of the solar panels: 50 ft to the property line of any NON-PARTICIPATING property; 250 ft to the outer wall of a dwelling on non-participating property (a landscape buffer is required within that distance); and to the nearest edge of the right-of-way, 40 ft for an interstate, federal, state or county highway, 30 ft for a collector road, 10 ft for a local road. Panels capped at 25 ft at full tilt. Setback and buffer requirements are waivable with the written consent of each affected non-participating owner. A decommissioning surety bond is required under IC 8-1-42-18 — NOTE: the distances above are a STATE-level fallback, not a figure read from this county's own ordinance. We hold siting-rule records for this county which may include a stricter local limit we have not yet extracted. Verify against the county's own ordinance before relying on these.

Spacing requirements

None codified.

Size restrictions

None codified; managed via CUP/SUP conditions

Penalties & bonding

No penalties or adjustments. Standard CUP/SUP process.

State-level permits & approvals

Local permit: Special Exception (SE) in A-1 Agricultural zoning via county Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA); some counties use two-step process (Plan Commission recommendation + BZA approval). BZA SE is the standard county-level pathway for all utility-scale solar. IURC CPCN: Indiana Code §8-1-8.5 — IURC Certificate of Public Convenience & Necessity (Cause No.) required for generating facilities >80 MW; process runs parallel to county BZA SE and does not replace it. IURC approval does NOT override a county BZA denial except where federal jurisdiction applies (see Mammoth Solar / Pulaski County precedent, 2023). IC 36-7-4: Indiana Code §36-7-4 limits how restrictive county ordinances can be for solar; basis for developer preemption litigation against overly restrictive ordinances (Randolph County 2024 litigation pending). SB 411 (2022): Voluntary 'solar-ready county' designation for counties meeting solar-friendly siting standards. SB 390 (2023): $1/MWh financial incentive for solar-ready counties.

🔒
Full permitting requirements

Full records for this county are part of a SitePath subscription.

State policy & grid context

State RPS & clean energy policy

No binding RPS — voluntary 10% by 2025 | Indiana Voluntary Clean Energy Portfolio Standard (2011) | Ind. Code §8-1-37

State incentive programs

Indiana Renewable Energy law (IURC): no Renewable Portfolio Standard — Indiana repealed its RPS (HB 1271, effective 2023). Net metering: available for ≤1 MW retail customer generation (IURC regulated utilities); Indiana Michigan Power (AEP), Duke Energy Indiana, Vectren/CenterPoint, NIPSCO offer programs. IURC CPCN: required for generating facilities ≥80 MW. HEA 1381 (2022): counties retain siting authority for solar in unincorporated areas. No state cash incentive program for solar. Utility: Duke Energy Indiana serves central/eastern IN; NIPSCO (NiSource) serves NW IN (Cook/Lake/Porter); Indiana Michigan Power (AEP) serves northeastern IN; Vectren/CenterPoint serves SW IN; REMC cooperatives serve rural areas.

Grid & interconnection

PJM / AEP Indiana Michigan Power (eastern IN border zone) — verify by exact project location

🔒
Full state policy & grid detail

Full records for this county are part of a SitePath subscription.

Battery storage (BESS) P1 Standalone Ordinance

STATE FRAMEWORK FOR ALL UTILITY-SCALE BESS

NFPA 855 referenced

BESS ordinances & bylaws

County-level battery-storage status, safety requirements, and projects — each linked to a primary source.

Community opposition P1

No organized opposition on record for this county yet — no petition, group, or oppositional coverage tracked. Read that as nothing found, not as nothing there: absence of records is not evidence of local support.

Subscriber intel Subscribers

Researched for this county and available with a subscription:

Sign in to view

Energy-related meetings & dockets P1

No tracked activity yet — coverage expands weekly.

State PSC dockets P1

No tracked activity yet — coverage expands weekly.

Local news P3

No tracked activity yet — coverage expands weekly.

Explore every US county on the interactive map

Filter by grade, state, moratorium status, and compliance stringency. Compare counties side by side.

Open the county map → SitePath home All Indiana counties
Data sources: public agendas/minutes from local government sites; PSC dockets from state regulators; news from GDELT and curated RSS. Last refreshed 2026-09-10. See the county risk scorecard or the full Indiana permitting index.